New Zealand based store

I have just started a antipodean counterpart to femininewear down in wee NZ. I'm still setting up, looking for funding and building my webstore, but for anyone who's interested, it's at www.environmenstruals.co.nz or will be :-)

EnvironMenstruals will be selling all of the major cup brands, as well as any cloth pads I can get my hands on (I'll make some of my own for now). I have a festival to go to, and a few connections to help me get started, but it's pretty scary.

Wish me luck?

Just to clarify that we are not connected with this business.

I wish you good luck with it and I hope it works well for you. Can you sell all brands over there or do you have similar restrictions to US sellers? I know in Australia they have something similar.
I heard recently that in the USA cloth pads are classed as medical devices but they don't need FDA approval. Very strange!

Oops, yes, my wording is a but misleading, sorry. It's been a long day.

Cloth pads are medical devices is just wacky! I think the FDA need to calm down a little. lol.

No, we don't have any restrictions at this stage, I emailed the ministry of health and they said they didn't fit the criteria for medical devices . So I can sell all brands and colours. Luckily Lunette in Australia stock the coloured ones just for NZ resellers.

I'm going to have to look more carefully into the sponges and other absorbent reusables, as tampons do have restrictions. I have to see what they define as a tampon and whether sponges and the likes are included in that.

Wow! That's great! I hope you can get all stocked up as soon as possible, I know plenty of NZ women who would just love it. It would also be great to have another business to add tot he "where to buy" list. Its so cool that you don't have restrictions.

And yes, cloth pads as a medical product is REALLY stupid... I mean its just plain old cloth, for crying out loud, lol. There are a million cloth-like things around your home that you could fold up and use as a pad if you had to, and I just don't see where they get off calling that practice medical. Its just material that absorbs perfectly healthy and normal body fluid. You might as well call toilet paper medical! lol.

It seems to me that they may just be looking for ways to pull in more money. Because every time something has to be approved, a big fee has to be paid. So they're putting that demand on just about everything. Ugh, so silly...

Personally, I liken putting restrictions on pads and cups to doing the same to underwear and sex toys respectively. I'm not aware of any restrictions on what sex toys (or underwear for that matter) are made from, so restricting external and non-absorbant-internal menstrual technologies* is just silly.

It's just more medicalisation and hegemonic control of women's bodies through institutional/sovereign power. - and-why-can't-I-write-that-sort-of-thing-when-I'm-writing-my-thesis-goddamit?


*I refuse to use the word protection, or the term feminine hygeine products as both indicate that menstruation is harmful, dirty or shameful.